Be Here Now

    88-year-old spiritual teacher, Ram Dass, author of the classic text Be Here Now, is failing physically and readying himself for death.  In connection with a recent talk, Ram Dass was interviewed by David Marchese for a September 2nd New York Times article.  My friend, Dan, sent the article my way.

         In response to a question about his teaching, be here now, Ram Dass replied:

         “In each moment, go into the moment.  Our minds take us back and forth in time.  I teach a moment.  And I teach that we identify with the ego.  The ego is a mind warp, and most people don’t identify with their soul.  They’re worried about excess meaning.  The soul witnesses the ego and witnesses thoughts.  ‘Be here now’ gives people an opportunity to re-identify outside of their thinking-mind ego and into that thing that’s called the soul.  It is the perspective from which we could live a life without being caught so much in fear.  To re-identify there is to change your whole life….

         “Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts:  Those are the daily attention-grabbers that make it so that you can’t come from your mind to your heart to your soul.  The soul contains love, compassion, wisdom, peace and joy, but most people identify with the mind.  You’re not an ego.  You’re a soul….

         “Go to the spiritual heart and there will be a doorway to the next plane of consciousness:  soul land.”

         Presence in the moment connects us with heart.  Heart leads us to soul.  Be here now.